I have decided to try a different tack in this post. Gradually as I learn some basic ideas about statistics and Machine Learning I will update this post with code, graphs or procedures used to configure tools. So in a few weeks I will have charted a simple course through the basic Machine Learning terrain. I hope. But these are just basic ideas to prepare oneself to read a more advanced math text.

Install GraphLab Create with Command Line

Step 1: Ensure Python 2.7.x

Anaconda with Python 2.x installation didn’t complete in my Windows 7 machine due to some access restriction. It couldn’t set this version of Python as the default.
So I installed Anaconda with Python 3.x. GraphLab works with only Python 2.x

In order to create a Python 2.7 environment the command used is

conda create -n dato-env python=2.7 anaconda

This was blocked by my Virus Scanner and I had to coax our security team to update my policy settings to allow this.

I spent a Sunday on this code to answer some questions for a Coursera course. At this time this code is the norm in more than one such course. So I am just building muscle memory. I type this code and look at the result and learn what I learnt earlier.

If I don’t remember how to solve it I search but the point is that I have to be constantly in touch with “R” as well the fundamentals. My day job doesn’t let me do this. The other option is a book on Machine Learning like the one by Tom Mitchell but that takes foreover.

After completing this edX course successfully I identified these questions which I answered wrongly. In some cases I selected more than the required options due to oversight.

I have marked the likely answers.

I need a longer article to explain what I learnt which I plan to write soon.

You have amassed a large volume of customer data, and want to determine if it is possible to identify distinct categories of customer based on similar characteristics.

What kind of predictive model should you create?

1. Regression
2. Clustering
3. Recommender
4. Classification

You discover that there are missing values for an unordered numeric column in your data.
Which three approaches can you consider using to treat the missing values?

1. Substitute the text “None”.
2. Forward fill or back fill the value.
3. Remove rows in which the value is missing.
4. Interpolate a value to replace the missing value.
5. Substitute the numeral 0

When assessing the residuals of a regression model you observe the following:

Residuals exhibit a persistent structure and are not randomly distributed with respect to values of the label or the features.
The Q-Q normal plots of the residuals show significant curvature and the presence of outliers.
Given these results, which two of the following things should you try to improve the model?

1. Cross validate the model to ensure that it will generalize properly.
2. Try a different class of regression model that might better fit the problem should be tried.
3. Create some engineered features with behaviors more closely tracking the values of the label.
4. Add a Sweep Parameters module with the Metric for measuring performance for classification property set to Accuracy.

You create an experiment that uses a Train Matchbox Recommender module to train a recommendation model, and add a Score Matchbox Recommender module to generate a prediction. You want to use the model in a music streaming service to recommend songs for the currently logged in user.Which recommender prediction kind should you configure the Score Matchbox

While exploring a dataset you discover a nonlinear relationship between certain features and the label.Which two of the following feature engineering steps should you try before training a supervised machine learning model?

1. Ensure the features are linearly independent.
2. Compute new features based on polynomial values of the original features.
3. Compute mathematical combinations of the label and other features.
4. Compute new features based on logarithms or exponentiation of these original features.

Which two of the following approaches can you use to determine which features to prune in an Azure ML experiment?

1. Use the Permutation Feature Importance model to identify features of near-zero importance.
2. Use the Cross Validation module to identify folds which indicate the model does not generalize well.
3. Prune features one at a time to find features which reduce model performance or have no impact on model performance as measured with the Evaluate Model module.
4. Use the Split module to create training, test and evaluation data sub-sets to evaluate model performance.

Minimization of cost

The AzureML Studio user interface is slick, very responsive and adopts a workflow supporting both R and Python scripts. There is a free account available with this caveat but that did not hamper my efforts to test some simple flows.

Note: Your free-tier Azure ML account allows you unlimited access, with some reduced capabilities compared to a full Microsoft Azure subscription. Your experiments will only run at low priority on a single processor core. As a result, you will experience some longer wait times. However, you have full access to all features of Azure ML.

The graph visualizations are very spiffy too. I am yet to finish the data cleansing aspects and use the really interesting ML algorithms.